Bollywood filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj’s adaption of Shakespearean tragedy Hamlet will be titled Hyder with all its characters set in Kashmir valley.

Bhardwaj’s upcoming film is assuming a final shape with the filmmaker spending six days in Srinagar after he arrived here on September
15.

The filmmaker, who left for Mumbai on Friday, spent the past week visiting different locations in south Kashmir, besides various areas of the summer capital Srinagar. His film is set in both urban and rural locations of the valley.

Sources said Bhardwaj, who is doing his first ever film in Kashmir, met locals, spent time on roadside tea stalls and attended local marriage functions “to absorb Kashmir as much as possible”.

The filmmaker, who is known for setting movies in different backdrops like badlands of UP in movie Omkara, was seen enquiring from locals about names and what it means to live in Kashmir.

Sources said the filmmaker --- before shooting Hyder, a local Kashmiri name, in coming winters --- was in the valley “to bring himself close to the reality in terms of people and locations.”

“The filmmaker discarded several locales that looked like Himachal. He insisted that he has to capture the essence of Kashmir beauty, which is nothing but Kashmir,” said a close source privy to the recent visit.

“The entire film with will be shot in Kashmir soon. I am hopeful that people of Kashmir will like it,” he was quoted saying by the sources.

With the filmmaker reportedly engrossed in reading different authors on Kashmir for the past one year, he was seen carrying the last year-released book The Meadow, written by Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott Clark and was on the kidnappings of five foreigners during the peak of the militancy.

After creating Maqbool from Macbeth and Omkara from Othello, all eyes are set how Hyder emerges from Shakespeare's Hamlet, the author’s longest play based on justice and revenge.

The director has already signed actor Shahid Kapoor for the lead role. The female cast is yet to be decided and will not likely be a big Bollywood name.